Fifth Japanese diver found alive after days missing off Bali

An Indonesian Navy rescue team searches for seven Japanese divers, on Feb 17, 2014, who went missing from the island of Nusa Lembongan, just east of Bali. Five divers have now been found alive, a disaster agency official said on Monday. -- PHOTO: AFP

SEMAWANG, Indonesia (AFP) - Five Japanese scuba divers were found alive on Monday clinging to a coral reef in rough waters off the Indonesian resort island of Bali, three days after they went missing, officials said.

Fishermen spotted the divers, among seven women who went missing on Friday, some 20 kilometres from where they set off for a diving expedition but could not rescue them because the waves were too high.

But one of them was later rescued by a helicopter, which also dropped food to the stranded divers. The four others were being picked up by a rescue boat and would be taken to Semawang beach in southern Bali.

"There were five found atop a large coral reef," Mr Rudi Tjandi, an official from the Bali disaster agency, told AFP.